The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are just 5-7, but they’re 3-1 over their past four games and have been playing some of their best football of late.
With three of their final four games at home, the Buccaneers have a chance to eclipse the five-win mark for the first time since the 2016 season, when they went 9-7 (they’ve gone 5-11 the past two years).
While Tampa Bay was hoping that by this point in the season they’d have some clarity as to what to do with quarterback Jameis Winston, who is playing on the fifth-year option of his rookie contract, it still seems as a big a question mark now as it did heading into Week 1.
Winston has put up big passing numbers this year, but leads the league in interceptions with 20. Still, a strong finish would go a long way in convincing the franchise to bring him back for at least another year under Arians.
One way Winston could do that is by hitting the coveted 5,000-yard passing mark. Right now, Winston ranks second in the NFL in passing with 3,659 yards. He’s on pace to finish with 4,879 yards, but could easily put up more when you consider his opponents over the final three weeks.
Week 14 will present the biggest challenge for the Tampa Bay quarterback, as the visiting Indianapolis Colts have the league’s 12th-best pass defense, allowing just 226.9 yards per game.
But the three opponents Tampa Bay will face over the final weeks of the season rank near the bottom of the league in pass defense: the Detroit Lions (30th), Houston Texans (28th) and Atlanta Falcons (26th). Remember, Winston already hung 313 yards on the Falcons in Week 12’s win.
Even if he comes up short of 5,000, Winston is on pace to obliterate his previous high for a season. But, will big passing numbers be enough to justify giving him another contract, especially when you factor in the turnovers?
That’s the question the Buccaneers are inevitably going to have to answer.
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